GoDaddy is a web hosting provider with the largest market share of hosted websites and the worlds’ largest domain registrar, managing over 75 million domains. In other words, we completely understand why you chose GoDaddy to host your website and/or park your domain. Unfortunately, when disaster strikes, not even their superb reputation can save you sometimes. Granted, the chances are considerably better than with lesser-known hosting services. Add that to a few precautions you might have taken in the past and some luck, and the journey of learning how to recover the GoDaddy website can have a happy end. Let’s get into it.
1. Recover the GoDaddy website from a cloud backup
First, we’ll help you determine whether these methods can work for you. Then, we’ll get into 5 common ways to recover the GoDaddy website using a cloud backup. Let’s begin.
How to know if you have a GoDaddy backup
GoDaddy allows you to create manual cloud backups of your website at any point in time. Moreover, the web hosting provider, to prevent their customers from going through the wringer, implemented an automatic backup feature inside their Website Builder editor. On top of saving drafts while you’re making minimal changes, it creates automatic backups of your entire website during major ones. Some examples include deleting the section of your website or resetting the website, as well as changing your theme, and publishing/unpublishing your website. Luckily, both automatic and manual GoDaddy cloud backups are stored in the same location, which depends on how they were created:
Site Backup (January 2018 and older)
Up until January 2018, GoDaddy used a feature called Site Backup. This backup solution was renamed to Site History afterward, but the method remained active for old and long-term users. Here’s what to do:
- Visit the GoDaddy Products page.
- Find the section named Web Hosting.
- Find the Linux Hosting account based on your website URL and click on Manage.
- On the “Dashboard” page, click on cPanel Admin.
- Find the “Files” section, then click on Site Backup.
- Select Restore files.
- Mark the files and folders you want to get back.
- Click on Restore files, then Restore.
Site History (Later than 2018)
As mentioned, GoDaddy’s automatic backup feature was named Site History, or more commonly, Website Backup, after January 2018. If your backup was created during that time or later, do this:
- Visit the Products page again.
- Scroll down until you find Website Builder.
- Click on Manage next to the name and URL of your website.
- The Website Builder editor should open automatically.
- Note. If that doesn’t occur, click on Website, then select Edit Site from the menu.
- Click on Settings.
- Click on Site History.
- The backups will be marked by date and time, with source and reason in the description. For example, “Automatic – Section Deleted” or “Manual Backup”.
- Click on the Restore button next to the backup. After a confirmation message, the page will reload.
- Choose Publish to make the changes public.
Website Security and Backups
GoDaddy allows you to change the default backup cloud hosting company and servers from theirs to an external service provider. Regardless of where the backup comes from, follow these steps to recover the GoDaddy website from it:
- Head over to the Product page again.
- Find “Website Security and Backups” and click on Manage all.
- Find your website, then click on Details under “Backups”.
- Browse the list for the right date. Click on Restore Options next to it.
- Choose Auto Restore Files under “File Restore”.
- Select files individually and click on Confirm Selected Files. Alternatively, click on Restore All Files at the bottom of the page.
- Put a checkmark in front of “I agree with overwriting the files”, then click on Restore.
- Note. If you also want to restore databases for your website, repeat steps 5, 6, and 7, but for Database options.
- Wait for e-mail notification when the website restoration finishes.
GoDaddy Pro Backup tool
Are you a GoDaddy Pro user? If the answer is yes, have you activated the Backup tool in the Dashboard, and created at least one back in the past? If you nodded your head, do the following:
- Sign in to your GoDaddy Pro account.
- Click on Sites in the sidebar on the left.
- Find your website on the list, and click on Backups next to it.
- Browse the list of backups. Click on Restore backup next to the right one.
WordPress backup
If your website uses WordPress as its CMS (Content Management System), you’re in luck. GoDaddy stores a separate backup for 30 days, after which it’s permanently erased. If that fits your timeline, follow these instructions to retrieve a WordPress website hosted on GoDaddy:
- Open the GoDaddy Product page again.
- Find the Managed WordPress section.
- Click on Manage next to your website name.
- Select Backups from the top menu.
- Find “Backup history”, then select Download Backup.
- Choose whether to retrieve Files, Database or Files & Database.
- Click on Restore.
2. Recover the GoDaddy website from a local backup
Made a local backup of your website in the past using GoDaddy Pro? Follow these instructions to restore your GoDaddy website using a local backup:
- Log in to your GoDaddy Pro account.
- Click on Sites, then Backup after hovering over the website name.
- Choose Restore from ZIP.
- Upload the ZIP archive containing your backup to any file-sharing website.
- Enter the download link under “Enter URL to zip archive”.
- Note. If you use Dropbox, make sure to switch “dl=0” for “dl=1” in the URL.
- Optional. If you know the admin credentials, do nothing. However, if your website was compromised or you forgot them, enter brand new credentials under “Create new admin”.
- Click on Restore.
3. Contact GoDaddy Customer Service
If everything else fails, there’s no shame in seeking help. Even better, you can do so in whichever way you feel most comfortable with. We’re referring to multiple ways to reach out to GoDaddy listed under method 4 of recovering your GoDaddy account. Like in that case, we suggest keeping a personal ID or business ID close by. You’ll likely need to prove your identity for security reasons.
